DSAT R&W Practice Question-Standard English Conventions-Boundaries - Hard
DSAT R&W Practice Question-Standard English Conventions-Boundaries – Hard
DSAT R&W Practice Question-Standard English Conventions-Boundaries – Hard is part of Standard English Conventions : This section measures revision skills and knowledge to conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation
Weightage : 26%
Subtopic: Standard English Conventions
Question
A recent study tracked the number of bee species present in twenty-seven New York apple orchards over a tenyear period. ______ found that when wild growth near an orchard was cleared, the number of different bee species visiting the orchard decreased.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. Entomologist Heather Grab:
B. Entomologist, Heather Grab,
C. Entomologist Heather Grab
D. Entomologist Heather Grab,
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans. C
Correct Answer: C
Rationale
Choice C is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation use between a name and title and between a subject and a verb. No punctuation is needed between the proper noun “Heather Grab” and “entomologist,” the title that describes Grab. Additionally, no punctuation is needed between the sentence’s subject (“Entomologist Heather Grab”) and the main verb (“found”) that indicates what Grab did.
Choice A is incorrect because no punctuation is needed between the subject and the verb. Choice B is incorrect because no punctuation is needed. Setting the entomologist’s name off with commas suggests that it could be removed without affecting the coherence of the sentence, which isn’t the case. Choice D is incorrect because no punctuation is needed between the subject and the verb.
Question
In a 2016 study, Eastern Washington University psychologist Amani El-Alayli found that, among the study participants who experienced frisson (a physiological response akin to goosebumps or getting the chills) while listening to music, there was one personality trait that they scored particularly ______ openness to experience.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A. high. On
B. high on;
C. high on
D. high on:
▶️Answer/Explanation
Ans. D
Correct Answer: D
Rationale
Choice D is the best answer. The convention being tested is punctuation use between a main clause and a supplementary phrase. In this choice, a colon is correctly used to mark the boundary between the main clause (“there…on”) and the supplementary phrase (“openness to experience”) and to introduce the information that identifies which personality trait participants scored especially high on.
Choice A is incorrect because it results in a rhetorically unacceptable sentence fragment beginning with “on” and separates a necessary preposition from the clause beginning with “there.” Choice B is incorrect because a semicolon can’t be used in this way to join the main clause (“there…on”) and the supplementary phrase (“openness to experience”). A semicolon is conventionally used to join two main clauses, whereas a colon is conventionally used to introduce an element that explains or amplifies the information in the preceding clause, making the colon the better choice in this context. Choice C is incorrect because it fails to mark the boundary between the main clause (“there…on”) and the supplementary phrase (“openness to experience”).